Tag: tea party

For all the talk about how the base needs to cooperate with the establishment more, it’s worth remembering that the base almost always does its part on Election Day. It’s the establishment that is less reliable in returning the favor.

Earlier this year just before the NH primary the popular Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker endorsed Chris Christie as his candidate for president. Despite an active robust campaign Christie went on to be decisively beaten in NH and dropped out of the race two days later.

Some wonder why Chris Christie did so poorly, too crowded a field, not enough money but one of the things that I think cost him was his record.

No not his record as Governor, given the situation in his state he’s actually done pretty well, no I mean his record as head of the NJ GOP

Since Christie is so popular and won re-election so decisively one would naturally expect he brought success for the party with him. After all , if he is the poster boy for the GOP nationally he would be the model to elect party members following his lead all over the state right?

Despite Christie’s 60 percent showing on Tuesday, Republicans didn’t make up any ground in the state Senate.

Charlie Baker has been a pretty good governor his handling of the big snowstorm last year, showed what competent leadership can do. His no drama administration has been a welcome contrast to Deval Patrick and his approval ratings reflect that contrast. It’s no wonder that the National Journal story about him was titled The Most Popular Politician in America.

Given the state of the GOP in Massachusetts and with 11% registration and a state house with veto proof majorities in both chambers for democrats (house 125-35 Senate 34-6) one would think Charlie Baker might use some of that political capital to build the party, recruiting GOP candidates across the state to contest these races and perhaps narrow those democratic supermajorities that he is facing.

Strongly conservative factions of the Massachusetts Republican Party, a constituency that Charlie Baker courted in his 2014 gubernatorial race, are now the target of the governor and his political team in their campaign to take firmer control of a sharply divided state GOP.

Baker, in an unprecedented foray into an intraparty squabble, is using the March 1 balloting for the GOP’s governing state committee to muscle the conservatives out of any significant influence and to replace them with moderate Republicans.

And some of the people he is opposing are folks that he can directly link his narrow electoral victory to

For example, Baker and Polito endorsed 29-year-old Neil St. Clair, a newcomer to the party, for a committee seat now held by conservative activist Steven W. Aylward of Watertown.

Aylward, who did not want to comment, was a leader in the 2014 campaign to repeal automatic increases to the state gas tax, a battle that brought a swath of antitax, pro-Baker voters to the polls. Baker even credited Aylward with playing a key part in his razor-thin victory over Democrat Martha Coakley.

Adding to the insult is that Baker’s choice, St. Clair, recently moved to Boston’s Back Bay from New York, where in June 2011 he had registered as a Democrat. St. Clair, who registered as a Republican last fall, said he is drawn to Baker’s moderate Republican brand and has offered to help. He is vague about how the Baker endorsement came about.

So Charlie Baker is supporting a newly converted Democrat for state committee vs a GOP activist who is directly responsible for the defeat of the hated indexed gas tax.

I’ve received one of those Baker mailers, they are supporting two people who I’ve never heard of over the local activists who have been working like dogs to advance the GOP in the area and stood by the party and defended it when conservatives were talking about staying home.

I can’t think of anything that would enrage the activists who have spent the last six years giving their time, effort and money to support the party than this effort to push them out of the way. If these suggested committee people are such excellent choices why not instead use the strength of the party to run them for state rep and state senate. After all if 19 of those 52 people managed to win seats currently held by Democrats in the house then the party would be able to sustain a Baker veto.

Furthermore let’s say Baker plans to recruit local candidates once he purges the grassroots activists from the party. Once that happens who is going to do the grunt work that said activists did? After all Jeb Bush has already demonstrated that big money can’t compete with committed volunteers.

On that subject we have a special election coming up in my district where Republican city councilor Dean Tran is facing Democrat Counsler Steven Hay for the seat vacated by Democrat Steve DiNatale. At the state party site Kristen Hughes had this to say:

“Dean Tran has been a consistent and hard-working advocate for Fitchburg taxpayers for years, and will be a trusted leader for the 3rd Worcester on Beacon Hill. The MassGOP is ready to work with Dean as our nominee in this election, to send Governor Baker a strong partner from Fitchburg and Lunenburg.”

You might think that a popular sitting GOP governor might bother to say a good word Mr. Tran yet the mailer which talks about the March 1st election doesn’t say a word about the special election taking place that day or the candidacy of Consular Tran.

If the party wants me and people like me they’ll have to earn me. When the GOP can convince me that they are serious about growing the party, when they convince me they are serious about treating the tea party et/al as valued members as opposed to a source of temp labor and occasional funds. I’ll be happy to return to the Republican Party in as public a fashion as I’ve just left it.

Apparently they are happy to keep people like me out and maybe throw a few other under the bus. I guess Neil McCabe was right:

after he is elected, conservatives may think they won something. But, rather with Baker and his collaborator Republicans, it means all is lost.

And people in the GOP establishment wonder why Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are winning primaries and their candidates are not.

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You can find lots of other examples like these. It’s the type of coordinated, multifront action that seems right out of the “The Party Decides.” If, like me, you expected something like this to happen to Trump instead of Cruz, you have to revisit your assumptions. Thus, I’m now much less skeptical of Trump’s chances of becoming the nominee.

Now let’s look at Pastor George Kelly’s of my magnificent seven’s piece Is he or She a Conservative. It’s the piece that precedes the one you’re reading now on this blog and notes the records of four candidates Rubio, Cruz, Trump and Carson. It’s Rubio & Cruz that I am thinking of here.

Senator Marco Rubio possesses a lifetime (ACU) score of 98%. One would venture to say that Mr. Rubio’s impeccable conservative credentials should be beyond dispute.

Alas, this is not the case.

Senator Rubio committed for many Immigration Hawks the unpardonable sin by supporting the GANG of 8’s Immigration Reform measures. For this he has obtained the wrath of Boarder Security Conservatives.

Nevertheless, Mr. Rubio has been in the Senate for four (4) years and his voting record and public service testify that he is a True Conservative.

State Representative Marco Rubio was Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives when he mounted a race for the US Senate and ran against former Republican Governor Charlie Crist.

Mr. Rubio ran as a Tea Party Conservative; this writer is shocked and somewhat baffled over how anyone could call Marco Rubio “an establishment Republican.”

I’ve actually wondered that myself, I think what’s cost Rubio has been his attempts to spin what he did (or rather the spin of some of his supporters) instead of just saying. Boy I tanked that didn’t I? Pastor Kelly continues with Ted Cruz (who I’ve endorsed)

A look at Senator Ted Cruz of Texas’s (ACU) scores is equally impressive: Senator Cruz has a lifetime rating of 100%! This is an astounding voting percentage (two years of Senatorial service).

Mr. Cruz is an intellectual wonder who graduated with distinction from both Princeton and Harvard Law School.

A similarity of both Senators reminds Conservatives of how far they have come since President Obama became President: Both of these Senators are products of “The Tea Party Movement”; and both men ran against the Republican establishment.

A brief look at the two young Senators (Rubio & Cruz) is a testimony to the Intellectual and Political transformation that has affected our nation since William F. Buckley, Jr. founded “National Review” in 1955.

As the old song states, “You’ve come a Long Way Baby!”

Both Misters Rubio and Cruz are certifiably “CONSERVATIVE!”

Now lets consider one other thing. As Mr. Silver the party establishment is going all out to destroy Ted Cruz in Iowa. At the same time the big money superpac for THE establishment candidate Jeb Bush who is floundering in both Iowa and NH and currently running 4th in his home state of Florida has been on an advertising blitz in NH going all out attacking not Donald Trump the leader, not Ted Cruz, not John Kasich who is supported by the Sununu family one traditional Bush family allies but Marco Rubio.

This tells me one of two things.

The Establishment GOP is still looking to nominate Bush and the plan is to take out both Cruz and Rubio early so that Jeb can be the only candidate standing as an alternative to Trump, the they can go all in against him. Cruz gets the big guns attention because of his huge hard money advantage and incredible existing grass roots ground game in half the primary states already & Rubio is left to Jeb’s moneybags on the theory that without a strong Iowa/NH showing he’ll can’t sustain his campaign long enough to make it to florida or be a threat afterwards leaving it Jeb vs Trump once again with the full might of the GOP ready to fight on Jeb’s side.

Under no circumstances can a conservative with the voting record of either Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz be allowed to be president. Forget that both would be the first Hispanic to lead a major party ticket, forget Rubio’s gang of eight stuff. We can’t take the chance that a tea party candidate be the head of the party particularly ones so solidly opposed to abortion.

Given the inability of anyone to land a punch on Trump (although Cruz’s latest ad is devastating) It’s possible that #1 is only Jeb plan. After all the GOP establishment might be pragmatically thinking that they can’t stop Trump and the time to join is now while they can get something for it rather than later when it means nothing and his cooperation with their priorities will carry a higher price.

But given what I’ve seen of the GOP establishment in Washington , Massachusetts and particularly NH I think #2 is a pretty safe bet.

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Like this:

Ted Cruz: In 2012 we searched out and found the one person on the face of the planet who had actually designed & implemented a program just like obamacare and that’s who we nominated as our presidential candidate. Literally there are seven billion people on the planet and you could walk up to anyone one of them and say “Excuse me Sir have you designed and implemented a program like Obama care”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if Romney is the nominee I will have no problem voting for him over Obama, but lets ask the question: If you are a GOP candidate running for congress against Obamacare do you really want the author of Romneycare at the top of your ticket? Do you want to be asked why you support the author of Romneycare while running against Obamacare? I don’t think so.

But on the day before the election I made this point concerning Romney vs Obama

I bit the bullet and pushed for Romney even though as I recalled that in Massachusetts not only did he have no coattails but when Gay Marriage won 4-3 for all his conservative religious beliefs he was dead silent (how that’s working out for ya GOP)

It is the Christians who get out the vote, folks. We are the base of the Republican Party. We were ignored (and even hated) by the establishment. Some will try to say that the ORCA failure is itself to blame. No. It’s that Mitt Romney relied on it in the first place, instead of seeking the help of the socially conservative base of the party, that he lost. No “moderate” candidate will ever win for the GOP, least of all one who treats us little people as if we don’t matter.

And yet what did Lisa Graas do?

I voted for Mitt Romney. I voted for the whole Republican ticket. I could have done far more than simply vote for him. He never asked. He didn’t want my help. So, he lost.

Well now the GOP isn’t even waiting for the primaries to be finished for the mask to slip:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is gearing up to challenge some House Republicans in primary elections, frustrated after much of its agenda has been stymied by a small pocket of conservative GOP lawmakers.

The influential and well-heeled business group is already eyeing several races, but the plans are still in their infancy and the targets have not yet been decided upon, according to more than a half dozen Republican sources on K Street and Capitol Hill.

I’m trying to imagine the effect on conservative morale next spring if we end up with a double whammy of Jeb Bush cruising towards the nomination while the Chamber of Commerce sets about zapping House conservatives like Jim Jordan, Raul Labrador, and Tim Huelskamp. If you thought Jebmania turnout on the right was looking ferocious before, wait until the last stumbling blocks to comprehensive immigration reform have been primaried into oblivion by country-clubbers.

Normally the final GOP argument is the supreme court but given what we’ve seen from John Roberts I don’t know that I’d trust a Jeb Bush to be better when it comes to the Supreme Court either.

The real question is why the are letting the cat out of the bag early. Could it be because they are afraid that an actual conservative might be nominated and they want to make sure any such conservative has no support?

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One year ago drivers in the United States in general got an unexpected gift from the laws of supply and demand. The US fracking boom which has caused the US to become the #1 energy producer in the world forced a reaction by the Saudi’s that dropped the price of fuel in the US in general putting money in everyone’s pocket that they didn’t expect, not just for drivers but for everybody who buys a product delivered by a truck.

As I noted in a piece earlier this year on Watchdog rather than celebrate this drop the Obama administration and others have tried to reverse this trend

These new rules, along with taxes proposed in various states, have the potential to do what the Saudis have to this point been unable to do: curtail the energy boom that has been the engine of the recovery thus far. As Investors Business Daily wrote “This war-on-shale action mirrors the administration’s war on coal, with EPA rules impossible to meet economically and sometimes requiring technology that doesn’t even exist.”

And to be sure Gas prices have slowly started to increase again. The station where I fill up dropped to $1.99 a gal at their low and was charging $2.53 as of my last fill-up.

With a national election on the horizon and terror threats in the news many in the state might have forgotten the fight that prevented annual automatic gas tax hikes for going into effect.This price increase hasn’t caused an angry reaction most likely because those now paying an average of $2.71 were paying nearly a dollar gallon more a year ago. But if you’re a Massachusetts consumer grateful about that .90 a gallon you’re not paying this year, make sure you remember a debt of gratitude you owe to a few other people.

In 2013 The Mass legislature passed a .03 increase in the State Gas tax and included with the flat increase indexing the tax to inflation meaning we would get a tax increase every single year without a vote by the legislature. As I put it at the time:

We get one chance to stop the indexing of gas tax increases forever, just one because if this budget is passed with the indexed tax it will not only never be repealed but it will be used as a political tool for years to come

I could see a bunch of 81-79 votes for repeal with every pol in electoral trouble voting with that 79 &beating their breast over the failure to repeal the tax.

Luckily for the state some people didn’t take it sitting down Mass GOP chair Kristen Hughes stood out with Tea Party members in 2013 publicizing that gas tax indexing.

and former GOP Congressional Candidate Marty Lamb who derided the attempt to increase gas taxes “to infinity and beyond”.

Instead of big names they relied on a group of hard working grass roots activists and it paid off. Despite being outspent nearly 30-1, the opposition of the largest paper in the state and then Governor Deval Patrick the group managed an improbable 53-47 victory leading to Holly Robichaud and Tank the Gas Tax being awarded the “Ballot Measure Campaign of the Year” by the American Association of Political Consultants

But the real winners are the Massachusetts drivers and consumers who are not dealing with an extra tax increase on Gasoline every single year. Each one of them owes Ms. Robichaud, Mr. Lamb, Ms. Hughes and all those activists who gave freely of their time to keep the government out of their pockets a debt of gratitude

After the repeal passed I gave a warning:

The folks at the statehouse will learn from that result and be smarter next time. They’ll make small gradual changes, and reach into your wallet more subtlety, not stealing over their weight or attracting attention.

Let’s hope that if they do there are people ready to take up the fight once more. Big Government is never stopped by accident, it comes from hard work.

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One of the reasons why you often see reporters bored when they are following a candidate is they tend to hear the same message and speech over and over again.

It make sense, like comedians on tour in the days before youtube, as long as the audiences are the different the message will always seem fresh to them and they react accordingly, but if you are assigned to a single person for days, weeks or months on end, the message doesn’t change.

However there is an advantage of hearing a message over and over. If you listen carefully you might either pick up a nuance or something might click that you didn’t hear the first time.

For example consider last weekend where I covered Senator Ted Cruz at threedifferentevents. At all of them he talked about his father coming to this country, how he had been oppressed in Cuba and came here and noted that if America falls where will we go to?

When I heard it the 2nd time it reminded me of the trek of Clara Csiong who I interviewed back in 2010.

She fled China to Cuba when the communists took over and then when Castro brought communism to Cuba for America. recognizing Barack Obama for what he was she joined the Tea Party: “This time I stay and fight”

How many people came here fleeing oppression over the 40 years who have that same thought?

That’s why we’re here, because we love our kids and we love our grandkids and we’re not prepared to look them in the eye and tell them we sat idly by while the greatest country in the world was taken.

I hear the echo of Clara saying five years earlier:

“I stay and fight.”

But Clara is not the only memory that comes to mind I hear when the Senator speak. At his 2nd stop that day he was asked about the GOP Establishment he began his answer with the question

How many people here are frustrated with the Republican establishment?

Every hand in the crowd went up.

It brought to mind that same rally where I met Clara when I asked a the crowd a question:

“Who here trusts the GOP?” Not a single hand went up, but people over and over promised me that if the GOP spent like the democrats they would be back to throw them out too. No wonder the GOP is scared of the tea party.

Two Hours earlier he was asked a similar question at the WRKO town hall. “Why conservatives should trust him?” Watch the question and the answer.

You know what You shouldn’t trust me, don’t trust any politician. What you should do instead is say: ‘show me, don’t tell me show me.’ I had a former boss who used to say ‘If i’m ever accused of being a Christian I’d like there to be enough evidence to convict me. The same is true of being a conservative, if you’re really a conservative you shouldn’t have to tell anybody because you will bear the wounds of standing for your principles and if you haven’t taken any shots you haven’t done it.

He elaborated further:

Every one of us should ask any candidate who shows up in front of us: ‘You say you believe in these principles? Great! Show me. When have you stood up and fought for them, when have you bled for them and what have you accomplished?’ As the Scriptures say: You will know men by their fruits

And when he gave that answer it reminded me of a song associated with by Audrey Hepburn (but actually sung by Marni Nixon)

Those words could be sung to almost any GOP candidate courting a voter with the promise of conservatism before a primary election:

Tell me no dreams filled with desire, if you’re on fire show me!…

…Sing me no songs, read me no rhymes, don’t waste my time, Show me!

And if I’m thinking and hearing this, there are likely a lot of other voters hearing and thinking the very same thing.

Closing thought: This is a comedy skit, attack ad or a web video just waiting to happen and a good chunk of the GOP field should be very afraid of the moment it does.

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My goal for 2015 is Twenty Two grand

That gets all the bills paid. (including my writers like Fausta) If I can get to Forty Thousand I can afford to travel outside of New England and/or hire me a blogger to help me get it done. Consider Subscribing 100 Subscribers at $20 a month will get the job done.

Mrs Cooper:You know how your daddy used to say that you can only fish for so long before you got to throw a stick of dynamite in the water?

Sheldon: Yeah.

Mrs Cooper:Well, I’m done fishing

The Big Bang Theory The Luminous Fish Effect 2007

I’m done.

I’m done asking people to vote for the GOP, I’m done compromising on issues dear to me and I’m done pushing candidates that are willing to say one thing when they want my vote but not willing to act once they have power.

The party seems to forget the reason they have a congressional majority is not due to their own actions but the actions of others.

In 1994 it was Rush Limbaugh and the conservatives he energized with the help of Hillarycare that motivated voters who previously did not turn out to finally give the GOP their first congressional majority since the 50’s.

It 2010 it was the TeaParty and people who had not gotten involved before energized by the president Obama push for Obamacare and led by Sarah Palin, the one person besides Limbaugh who was not calling for appeasement of Obama that gave the GOP majorities all over the nation just in time for the redrawing of congressional maps.

And it was conservatives again who after being spurned by Mitt Romney & Co and staying home in 2012 gave the party one more shot to do what they promised in 2014.

This abortion bill debacle was the last straw for me. I left the Democrats 20 years ago when it became clear that a Catholic who actually believed in his faith was no longer welcome, if the GOP doesn’t want social conservatives then it’s time for us to go.

The time to take over the GOP (state by state) or set up a real third party (let’s call it the conservative party, like NY state), is NOW, after a historic election that demonstrated the ineptness of the “Wizards of Smart”.

The time NOT to talk about and vote for a third part candidate, or stay home and pout about rules that work against you is DURING an historic election, when one of the evils is immeasurably worse than the guy you can’t quite warm to.

If we successfully set up a conservative party, and win some seats, we can choose to align with Republicans or even endorse their candidate as a tactical matter on a vote by vote basis.

This VERY week Committees should begin forming in every state to create State conservative parties.

THIS VERY WEEK: True believers should be determining exactly legal steps need to be done in each state to be recognized.

This very week, activists should be sounding out potential candidates and writing a statement of principles embracing the following:

1. Fiscal conservativism & responsibility

2. Social conservative & personal responsibility

3. Defending the Judeo Christian values that made America great

As for funding this, if we can’t find conservatives willing to kick in I”m sure our friends on the left would be delighted to provide the seed money to get things going in the hope of splitting the GOP.

This has to be started NOW so that by say April of this year we are in a position to be able to act.

Now I can hear people say: “DaTechGuy, this is crazy, you’ll just be handing elections to the Democrats who are even worse. Haven’t you said time and time again you have to vote for the best choice on the ballot?”

Yes I have and on a pragmatic level if the choice in 2016 is Bush vs Clinton I’d much rather have Bush nominate a squish to the Supreme Court than Clinton nominate a radical but this misses the point.

If we have things in place by this summer, well before the primary season for 2016 everything changes for one simple reason that Mike pointed out in his original e-mail. A point I want to emphasize:

There is absolutely nothing stopping a Massachusetts Conservative Party or a Ohio Conservative Party or a North Carolina Conservative Party from nominating the candidate that wins a GOP primary as their choice for a state district, a House district, a Senate Seat, a Governorship. Nor is there anything preventing a national conservative party from nominating the GOP presidential nominee as the choice of their party.

Now put yourself in the place of the GOP both on the national and the state level.

If they see such parties forming, particularly in states that are close, are they more or less likely to frustrate the conservative agenda in the House & Senate and fuel the anger that generates them?

Say you are a member of Congress, perchance one who scuttled the Abortion bill, or is pushing for higher Gas taxes or supporting common core and you see this happening, are you more or less likely to anger conservatives who might choose to run a candidate who will cut into your base?

Say you are a state party preparing to fill a open congressional seat, are you likely to push a RINO that will guarantee a Conservative Party candidate on the ballot or will they find a more conservative candidate that, while not being a Ted Cruz or a Mike Lee would have enough appeal to conservatives to keep them in their camp?

Imagine you’re a state GOP with a strong conservative already sitting, are you to consider a primary challenge to might cause the state conservative party to split off?

Now obviously both human nature and the law of averages tell you that this will not always be enough to motivate the GOP to “Do the right thing” and there will be occasions when our running a candidate will be enough to give a Democrat the odd house seat in a marginal district or even cost us a Senate Seat such as in NH but consider the following:

Right now the GOP has the largest majority it has had in the house for a century. So if Democrats take a few seats or even 10, it will not give them the strength to advance the liberal agenda.

Additionally what if there had been a 3rd party candidate running in NH instead of clear field. Might some of those conservatives who stayed home have been enough to not only increase the GOP majority in the statehouse or perhaps give some help to Marilinda Garcia who was ignored by the national GOP?

Would not both the state party and perhaps a candidate such as Kelly Ayotte who had the support of Conservatives like Palin in 2010 seeing thousands of votes for a Conservative candidate in opposition to Brown think long and hard before antagonizing said party before she has to face voters?

Now there are some who might see new party structure as a chance to become regular guest on media, others who figure getting in on the ground floor of a party will mean power in the long run, still others see this in terms of profit and an easy paycheck. A new party will always attract such people.

In the long run it doesn’t matter to me any more than if a congressman votes the right way out of principle or out of expediency. I’d say if the world was full of angels we would not be need government but as I recall Satan started his career angelically.

So lets just say this: if we are advancing conservative principles for the good of our country our society and children, that’s fine with me.

But remember we have only a short window to get this done, if we wait too long then we won’t be able to influence the GOP congress into conservatism, or the GOP candidates into conservatism, all we’ll be able to do is help Democrats win, which is’t the point of the exercise.

We get started now or we wait till Jan 2017. There is not an acceptable 3rd choice.

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As a Massachusetts conservative watching the national media go wild about the election of a Republican Governor completely ignoring the lack of coattails (hell the lack of coat) is a source of frustration.

Charlie Baker is a nice guy and he means well but his election is not likely to have more than a cosmetic effect

The best way to explain the problem is to think of Baseball and the difference between buying a championship and building a dynasty.

In Massachusetts there are two conflicting views of the party, the establishment that is interested in the top of the ticket. It produces for those at the top patronage and excellent resume fodder in the hopes of getting a national political position.

Because of that goal they can’t take the time to build a farm team, every year that passes brings up a crop of people in Red States vying for those same jobs with resumes filled with actual positions in government.

They need that governorship today, they can’t wait around for the GOP to start winning seats in the statehouse, in fact a strong GOP controlled house and or senate will simply mean a crop of rivals with strong resumes in government as well.

Then there is the grass-roots Tea Party activists. They aren’t looking for a job from the government. They are looking to be able to keep their own jobs and business intact and be able to afford to have a decent life to raise their children here without either being hit in the pocketbook or because of their religious & social values.

For them it’s the bottom of the ticket that matters since until there is a change in the state senate and house all a GOP Governor can do is delay the day of reckoning.

So the idea is to start at Single A, city councilors, school committees. Recruit candidates to fill those spots. Then in four or five years those people can run for mayor, country offices, register of probate etc. the Double AA of electoral politics at the state level while a new grew group of people are recruited for the single A offices. After a few years the AA polls will start running in the state house and senate and positions like secretary of state & AG and within a few years viola you have a full slate of viable candidates not only for the Governor’s office but for congressional and senate seats.

Until the Massachusetts GOP decides to embrace the base GOP leaning votes will continue to leave the state and sooner or later there won’t be enough left to allow even a Republican as socially liberal as Charlie Baker won’t have a prayer ever again.

You have done this deed in secret, but I will bring it about in the presence of all Israel, and with the sun looking down.’

2 Samuel 12:12

At their new location of Barber’s Crossing the Twin City Tea Party, Paul Craney Executive Director of the Mass fiscal alliance came and spoke about their checklist of votes.

Their voter guide mailer which went out to hundreds of thousands of homes in the state scores the entire 200 member House and Senate of Massachusetts on fiscal issues (nothing social, nothing 2nd Amendment nothing else.) and a further 20+ votes on their site, their mission? To inform voters of how fiscally responsible your representative is with your money.

Mr. Craney talked about the response to the mailing and how his organization has been attacked as a PAC (they’re not one) accused of legal violations (without evidence) and accused of not being transparent in their donor lists by the very legislators who have voted to keep committee votes private.

I found the argument Ironic, legislators demanding a transparent donor list to intimidate people exercising constitutional rights while avoiding transparency to the people their employers who they beg every two years for their job.

I found this episode revealing. Guys like Bill Maher are essentially bullies. They interact with conservatives for one purpose only: to make them look bad, and serve as foils for their leftism. The last thing they want is a real debate on a level playing field. The mere threat of being kept honest by not being the only possessor and editor of the video is enough to send them scurrying in a “different direction.”

That is the essential illustration of what it means to base your power on low info voters. One doesn’t dare allow the truth to be seen for fear of waking the sleeping voter or shattering a comfortable illusion.

The problem is while you might not see or acknowledge these illusions, you certainly pay for them.

Yes, I understand the GOP has not earned the respect or even the support of the Tea Party voter but has Barack Obama and Harry Reid who have used the power of the federal government in an attempt to break us earned it more?

The only people less deserving of victory in November than the GOP are the Democrats.

Like this:

For the rest of the time I was there I was stared at with contempt as if I was something lower than low. My race had not been an issue nor the Crucifix being Catholic in a very protestant state, but once it was known I supported the tea party it was as if I was wearing a Klan outfit. I heard the ladies talking among themselves saying you could tell I was a tea party man just by my appearance. When I left glares followed me out.

DaTechGuy, An Incident in Lithonia 5/27/10

A few weeks ago I warned that the looting in Ferguson has the potential to cement a rather nasty racial stereotype concerning young black men for generations. This week a different stereotype carefully crafted by the media was under assault in that very same city when a group of people decided to launch a BUYcott of Ferguson business that has been hard hit by those same looters

I insisted on buying something–all the people in the salon were so happy and kind. She didn’t have much for white guy gray hair, but she took the time to pull together some gift bags. Then she didn’t want money, but I made her take it.

A gentlman (my age) in the salon (husband?) asked who we were with. I told him “St. Louis Tea Party.”

“Tea party?” he said. “You bad boys,” and chuckled. Then he looked at me, very serious. He said, “The tea party came up here to do this?”

His surprise was understandable. For half a decade the media, professional left and black “leaders” have been telling black democrats what a bunch of awful racist the Tea Party is (In Mississippi the establishment GOP gave a hand to spread that meme as well). I’ve lived the results myself , so naturally they had no inkling of the Tea Party plans on facebook:

The group spread the word of the “BUYcott” event on Facebook, hoping to get at least 20 people to show up and spend their hard-earned money at local Ferguson businesses on August 21. They apparently ended up with a group of about 40 “(mostly) white people”

and were totally taken aback, but were VERY grateful:

In other shops, we’d get hard stares when we walked in and shopped. Once we told them “we’re with the tea party, and we’re here to shop,” these people actually shouted. “Thank you, thank you, thank you so much.”

The group did not do this BUYcott as a publicity stunt or a one-time feel good measure. They have bigger plans to do their part to help these businesses thrive. Their next BUYcott is scheduled for Labor Day Weekend and they are encouraging the state legislature to exempt Ferguson businesses from sales tax that weekend to encourage even more sales.

I wonder how much Al Sharpton & the black panthers spent in these shops?

I suspect the only chance this will have of breaking into MSM coverage is on Jake Tapper’s show under “The Buried Lede”

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The “Tequila Party,” a Latino group formed in opposition to the Tea Party, wrote to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director JamesComey on Monday torequest that the Tea Party and several officials be investigated for their role in protesting and blocking the transfer of illegal aliens captured in Texas toMurrieta, California. The protests on July 1 turned back three busloads of aliens, though more are scheduled to arrive.

In their letter–signed by California attorney Ruben Salazar, pro-amnesty activist Dee Dee Garcia Blase, and Nebraska attorney Shirl Mora James–the group, writing on the letterhead of a new organization called “Somos Independents,” called on Holder and Comey to launch an “outside investigation” of Murrieta city councilwoman Diana Serafin; U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents Steven Golda and Gabe Pacheo; Murrieta mayor Alan Long, protest leader Patrice Lynes; the Murrieta Police Department, and local resident Joseph Culberson.

In other words, these people are looking to have Holder’s DOJ facilitate the detention of real and perceived Tea Party members–and to have the FBI arrest them as domestic terrorists. Oh the irony of that!

Tequila’s well-earned nickname is Ta Kill Ya. We all know that this is the ultimate intent of the Organized Left–to purge the world of “non believers.” Bill Ayers told us so. All of the lawlessness perpetrated by the government is intended to goad enough of the citizenry to violence, so that the purge will have the appearance of justification.

And, guess what, my Latino friends of all nationalities and political persuasions: when your usefulness comes to an end, you’ll be purged also. The Left has always styled itself as the champion of the brown and the poor–until we become inconvenient and too mouthy. Same as it ever was; ta-kill-ya, indeed.

Solution? This, too, is the same as it has always been: beseeching the Almighty and trusting in Him.

Juliette Akinyi Ochieng blogs at baldilocks. Her first novel, Tale of the Tigers: Love is Not a Game, was published in 2009; the second edition in 2012. Her new novel, Arlen’s Harem, is due in 2014. Help her fund it and help keep her blog alive!

Like this:

President:You’re not gonna do that…You’ve got yourself a chip in the big game now. You’re gonna tuck that away. You are gonna save that for a time when your own ass is on the line and then you’re gonna pull it out, and I’m gonna cash it in for you

Clear and Present Danger 1994

66 years ago back in the days before the Democrat party owned Massachusetts, Tip O’Neil. allowed an election to be stolen from him in Massachusetts.

After a dispute over supporting Harry Truman or not for president at the convention (Tip was pro-Harry) he ran his own slate of Delegates against the James Michael Curley machines. Curley was furious and was determined to crush the upstarts but found that they campaigned like hell and when election day came around O’Neill’s slate won.

Or so they would have but the Curley people seeing the results simply transposed the number reporting O’Neill’s results as Curley’s & vice versa.

When Tip was ready to go to the election panel he was approached by Paul Dever in desperation. Tip quoted those words in his autobiography: Man of the House on page 55

The party is already in bad shape. If we show people we’re a bunch of thieves, it will destroy us. In the name of party unity, please drop this fight.

O’Neill, in his own words “reluctantly” agreed. This was the beginning of his rise to power in the party and would eventually lead to the speakership of the House of Representatives.

Tip O’Neill made that deal because he wanted a future in the Democrat party and understood there was no future if the party was that his party couldn’t stand the scrutiny.

And that brings us to the Mississippi Machine.

On June 21st we wrote about the monies being given to black leaders by Super PACS for the Cochran campaign and asked: Does NOBODY see the Potential Headline here?. We kept on the story the day before the election but the possible buying of the black vote didn’t interest the media. Instead they commended Thad Cochran for “reaching out” to the black Community to beat Chris McDaniel and the Tea Party.

Unfortunately for the party while the story of the money hasn’t caught the national interest the Tea Party and the people who were the victims of their moves have noticed it and True the Vote has decided to get involved:

OXFORD, MS. — July 1, 2014: True the Vote (TTV), the nation’s leading voters’ rights and election integrity organization, today filed suit in federal court against the Mississippi Secretary of State and the State Republican Party, asking the Court to immediately order that election records be shared to inspect for illegal votes ahead of certification for the June 24 U.S. Senate Primary Runoff Election (True the Vote, et. al v. State of Mississippi, et. al. (3:14cv144-MPM-SAA).

The problem is the Hinds County Republican Party in my opinion is dragging its feet in allowing access to “all” the voter information in a timely fashion to complete the audit.
It appears they are trying to run the clock out and certify the election results on Monday of next week preventing Chris McDaniel from completing an audit of the vote.
Please call the GOP at 6019485191 fax 6013540972 email info@msgop.org ask that they have an impartial member of the Hinds County Republican Committee oversee the audit, certification instead of the present county chairman.

Logic dictates stuff like this is done for a reason. Like Lois Lerner and the IRS who destroyed data, the logical assumption is the Mississippi machine is holding back because they know the information is damning. Unfortunately for the GOP even if the media doesn’t take notice the legal cases will continue to go forward and if they lead where the party’s actions suggest they will, this has the potential to shatter their power and send people to jail.

If this was something in the normal course of events and the tea party was a regular part of the Republican machine and McDaniel’s only concern was advancement this would not be a problem, he and his followers would simply be rewarded to keep their mouths quiet with patronage, favors and other offices.

But that answer came hours after the Fielder tape had burned up social media. By the time Russell responded, FreedomWorks—which had made no previous moves to support the legal challenge—issued a statement calling for prosecutors to get involved. “This is a federal crime and requires swift action by the Department of Justice and the FBI,” said the group’s national political director, Russ Walker. “The faith the American people have in the electoral process is critical to the success of our representative democracy. These are serious allegations that, if true, undermine the integrity of our electoral process.”

Meanwhile, the McDaniel campaign was claiming 1,500 sketchy votes in Hinds County—almost double what the Tea Party had claimed. “We don’t have to prove that we have 7,000 [invalid] votes,” spokesman Neil Fritsch told Fox News. “All there needs to be is enough doubt about the election, and we’re confident about that.”

and second of all people are angry, VERY angry:

“People [are] saying, ‘I hate that I voted for Thad,’ ” said Grant Sowell. “The Tea Parties in Mississippi are growing like never before. I’ve had people apologizing to people for not being more involved. They feel like what’s going on is not just unethical but ungodly.”

The GOP has made a huge mistake in Mississippi, Chris McDaniel is not going away and the national tea party is not going away and most important of all the lawsuits aren’t going away. This is because the Tea Party isn’t looking for power for the sake of power. or wealth, it is looking for power to accomplish something and the political power is just a means to that end.

As Jack Ryan said to the President in Clear and Present Danger: “Mr President, I don’t dance”

If the national GOP doesn’t get this fixed and I mean NOW you could have Mississippi be the reason why the GOP doesn’t take the Senate this year.

There are a lot of things we can say about the 5-4 ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby.

We can say it’s an important win for religious liberty (it is) we can say that differentiating between a “closely held” corporation and a big publicly held one is far (it is). You can claim that it’s a horrible defeat for women (that’s nonsense) and you can fundraise off of visions of coathangers (I suspect that’s blast mail has already gone out). You might even claim it’s in the long run a win for Obamacare because it removes one of the drivers for the full repeal movement.

But while religious groups will be happy with the ruling & businesses will be happy as well in the list of winners would be incomplete if it didn’t include the group that won biggest by this ruling. the Establishment GOP and that victory driven not by Hobby Lobby’s victory but by the fact that it was 5-4.

After Mississippi, the tea party and the base have been rightly outraged. There were plenty of people asking themselves if it might be worth it to lose a seat like Mississippi on the theory of: If we don’t make the GOP pay now? When do we?

Hobby Lobby gives the GOP exactly the right answer.

If Hobby Lobby had lost it would have pushed the full repeal of Obamacare to the forefront. This is something that even if the establishment wanted to deliver (and it’s becoming apparent they do not) they could not as long as President Obama is in office).

If Hobby Lobby had won say 6-3 or better than the protections for religious liberty would have been pretty secure, secure enough that there would be no urgency.

But this ruling was 5-4, and that means that the left has the four votes needed to bring a new case to the court and is only a single vote away from reversing its course.

That makes control of the Senate and the ability to block a potential Supreme Court Justice during the last two years of the Obama administration where he would have absolutely no reason to restrain himself (Think Justice Bill Ayers or Elizabeth Warren).

I am a Tea Party supporter and I believe that the GOP has not earned the loyalty of its base, but elections take place every two years, Supreme Court appointment do not and when they happen they happen for life.

If the choice is between punishing the Mississippi GOP in general and Thad Cochran in particularly for their actions or having that 51 vote in the senate to stop a Barack Obama Justice I’ll put up with that graft for another 6 years. If the difference between Harry Reid or Mitch McConnell deciding if a Supreme Court nominee goes forward is Scott Brown being that 51st GOP Senator from NH then I say Go Scott Go!

What’s the use of being elected or re-elected if you don’t stand for something

President Grover Cleveland

They say all if fair in love, war and politics but I suspect the GOP has won the battle but risks losing the war over Mississippi.

In Mississippi Cochran the desire to keep Cochran in the Senate was a matter of money:

Cochran is, for all intents and purposes, a marionette. His strings are pulled by staffers and lobbyists. They drop him onto the stage of the Senate and pull up a string to raise his hand. These puppeteers are so invested in keeping their gravy train going that they will, while claiming to be Republicans, flood a Republican primary with Obama voters to ensure their gravy train continues.

And if that gravy train requires laying out 5 figures to black leaders to make sure it continues, for those men, it’s a small price to pay.

But while tactically that might make sense for those of the party with skin in the game in that state, on a national level it’s a dangerous move.

The only reason why House Republicans hold chairmanships and the power and patronage that comes with it are conservative/tea party voters that have turned out. If I’m trying to win the Senate in November the last thing I need to see after a primary election is this

If the Republican Party spends money to turn out Democrat voters against a conservative in a GOP primary — the paid professional party apparatus doing this as a deliberate strategy — what message does that send to conservatives, whose votes are crucial to whatever hope Republicans have of winning an electoral majority?

The problem for those who call themselves Republicans is that it is harder and harder to say exactly what a Republican is these days. The great lesson from Mississippi is that Republican means, more or less, that if elected the party will reward its major donors, who are just different than the Democrats’ major donors. Policy differences are about different donors, not an actual agenda to shift the country in a different direction.

and you particularly don’t want to see videos like this from Sarah Palin

What’s the point of electing Republicans if they’re going to act like Democrats?

You can fight the tea party tough in a primary, you can beat the tea party as was done in Oklahoma but the one thing you can’t afford is to have people like Sarah Palin suggesting it’s not worth it to show up and vote for Republicans.

It’s bad enough that the GOP seems to have done all it could to keep its base at home for the last two presidential election cycles but if they are trying the same in 2014 midterms, that’s Market Basket level stupidity.

There has never been a better chance for the GOP to take full control of congress than this year and perhaps that’s why the establishment is so willing to do things like this. As Stacy McCain put it:

it is still possible that the Republican Party will capture the Senate majority in November, so that Mitch McConnell’s cronies can address each other as “Mister Chairman” again (which is all they care about). Given all the advantages the GOP takes into this mid-term election, it would take an extremely incompetent fall campaign by the Republicans to prevent McConnell from becoming Majority Leader.

buuuuuut…

if everything falls apart for Republicans between now and Election Day, if the Democrats catch all the lucky breaks while the GOP is cursed with misfortune, so that McConnell’s selfish ambition is thwarted and Harry Reid remains the Majority Leader . . .
Well, if that happens, remember June 24 as the point of no return.

If the GOP wants to return to the bad old days when they were a permanent minority for nearly a half a century conservatives will oblige them.

Of course if the Tea Party decides to stay home and if Harry Reid is right about the Koch brothers trying to buy elections it appears we have already established that the black vote can be purchased for the right price.

Like this:

Gracchus: Don’t you be so stiff necked bout it, politics is a practical profession. If a criminal has what you want you do business with him

Spartacus 1960

You might recall that I was very taken aback by the NYT story this weekend concerning monies being spent in the Thad Cochran race and was particularly taken by this statement printed in the NYT’s story on the subject.

The Cochran outreach campaign is taking many forms. The “super PAC” supporting the senator, Mississippi Conservatives, is paying African-American leaders, including Mr. Crudup, to help lift black turnout on Tuesday, said Pete Perry, a Republican strategist here who is working for the group.

As a person who writes about religion & politics that screamed “tax exempt status conflict” not to mention that it seemed unseemly that a Bishop would be accepting funds to turn out the vote, particularly for someone who he would normally oppose.

Yesterday I heard back from Bishop Curdup, he was able to say that his statements in the NYT are accurate, but couldn’t speak for the rest of it.

I then sent him the above quote and asked if can confirm Mr. Parry’s statement.

He answered this Morning that he would not confirm that statement. He did say he is raising money for what he called “our pac” to found our efforts. I presume that this would be referring to the efforts to defeat tea party candidate Chris McDaniel.

Here is what I take from this.

1. If Bishop Curdup is raising money for a pac that would be of course separate from raising money for or though his church as a Bishop, he does not lose his rights as a voting American because of his religious vocation.

2. The use of the words “Our Pac” is ambiguous, I would presume that this would mean a different PAC than “Mississippi Conservatives” which is the Pac Mr. Perry is working with although that is not something I have the answer to yet.

There are two obvious things that come to mind here as well.

1. Taking Bishop Curdup him at his word, and I have no reason not to, If I was him I’d be rather upset that the NYT was not more clear in their story, not only does their ambiguity have the potential to put his church’s nonprofit status at risk but it to some degree impunes his honor.

2. Can someone ANYONE explain why a the it takes a blogger in Massachusetts sitting in a bedroom with Doctor Who playing in the background to get these answers and clarifications when

A: The NYT is an international business enterprise employing thousands and

B: As the “Paper of Record” in America every single news agency in the country saw the exact same story I did and could have asked the very same questions.

C: The Mississippi Senate race is a nation story with implications both for the control of the Senate and the relationship between the Tea Party & the GOP

I mean c’mon are these guys even pretending to try anymore?

Update: While the MSM doesn’t want to upset the apple cart as it might help a Tea Party candidate Breitbart is getting some rather loud denials from others in the state:

Cole and others have also said shadowy Democratic operatives working to drive Democrats to the polls for Cochran, like James “Scooby Doo” Warren, are known for using “walking around money” and other tactics to incentivize voters to the polls.

A black conservative political activist even recently posted the “going rates” for black preachers to endorse Cochran from the pulpit, saying he was familiar with how much they were being paid.

Carter, though, denies he’s receiving any money for his work to help Cochran.

“I ain’t seen no kind of money around here,” he said when asked if he received any cash from Cochran’s team to help deliver voters to the polls. “I ain’t seen no walking around, no crawling around, no jumping around money.”

And J. Christian Adams reports that all the stops are being pulled out in terms of legality

Tatler has learned that Democrat notaries who engaged in illegal conduct in previous elections in Mississippi (according to a federal court ruling) are now harvesting absentee ballots for the Republican runoff from African-Americans who have always voted in Democratic Party primaries…

…This is the sort of voter fraud that academics and political hacks (but I repeat myself) say is rare and doesn’t really amount to much.

Tatler can report that the notaries who have been engaged in voter fraud going back at least a decade are now in the field once again harvesting absentee ballots from African-Americans in the Republican primary who normally never vote in the Republican primary in Mississippi.

I think the “intent” law in Mississippi in terms of primaries is stupid but this other stuff, it stinks to high heaven.

Update 3: Heard again from Bishop Curdup he notes that the church is located in the same shopping center where the PAC office is located. He categorically states the church is: ” no way involved or supporting my efforts.”

That’s a very important point and if I was the Bishop I’d be rather peeved that neither the NYT story nor Mr. Perry make that clear. It’s a poor use of a person working on behalf of your candidate.

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Today the NYT is reporting on the runoff race in Mississippi with the headline: Cochran Asking Blacks to Rescue Him in Republican Primary

Bishop Ronnie C. Crudup stood before roughly a dozen of his colleagues at a weekly Baptist fellowship meeting last week and asked for their help in a fight that, until now, would have been unthinkable for a black pastor in Mississippi: “Let’s send Senator Thad Cochran back to Washington,” he urged.

If you if you look at the web site for new Horizon church international Bishop Crudup seems quite a man and is a pretty good get for Cochran.:

Ronnie C. Crudup, Sr., is the Administrative Bishop for the Fellowship of International Churches. He is also Senior Pastor of New Horizon Church International, an exciting and rapidly growing church in Jackson, Mississippi, which he founded in 1987. He is highly regarded as a compassionate pastor, prolific Bible teacher, dynamic preacher, and visionary leader who proclaims a message of consecration and empowerment to the masses and gives practical steps on how to fulfill one’s divine calling and destiny in Christ.

and he’s a very busy man too:

Bishop Crudup is known to be a man of great faith who is on the move for the Lord. He is a frequent speaker in schools, churches and prisons across the country. He is host of “New Horizon Presents” and “The Issues” – a television broadcast ministry and is passionately involved in international missions in Malawi, South Africa, and Zambia. Countless thousands know him by his signature statement, “To Count It All Joy.

Getting Bishop Crudup to take time out of his busy schedule to publicly support Republican Thad Cochran in order to stop the tea party candidate State Senator Chris McDaniel is pretty big news and Ashley Parker & Jonathan Martin’s piece on the whole does a pretty good job covering it.

But they have managed to miss the lede in their own story.

Go and give it a read. Can you spot the story screaming to be covered? No? Well don’t feel bad I suspect the reason you missed it is due to the use, or lack thereof, of a specific an honorific adjective and it’s replacement with a different one.

Here is the key paragraph with the key word bolded.

The Cochran outreach campaign is taking many forms. The “super PAC” supporting the senator, Mississippi Conservatives, is paying African-American leaders, including Mr. Crudup, to help lift black turnout on Tuesday, said Pete Perry, a Republican strategist here who is working for the group.

So why does that “Mr.” matter so much? Because of what that paragraph says.

One might, if one is a conservative giving to a pac called “Mississippi Conservatives” see a story in paying off black leaders in order to stop a conservative candidate.

One might if a liberal, see a story in black leaders being paid by a conservative pac to produce support for a Republican senator, after all if “conservatives” can buy black leaders and possibly the votes they influence once they can do it again (insert Harry Reid Koch speech here).

One might if interesting in clean elections in general find the whole concept that you can apparently “buy” black leaders. If you look how this is mentioned so casually as if it’s the most normal thing in the world in the piece you might find it VERY troubling.

All these things come to mind but consider what happens if you read that paragraph again with “Mr.” replaced by “Bishop”

The Cochran outreach campaign is taking many forms. The “super PAC” supporting the senator, Mississippi Conservatives, is paying African-American leaders, including Bishop Crudup, to help lift black turnout on Tuesday, said Pete Perry, a Republican strategist here who is working for the group.

Suddenly the story is obvious, The “Paper of Record” in the United States states that Pete Perry, a Republican strategist claiming his pac is paying an influential and well-respected black Bishop to increase black turnout for his candidate.

Can you see the headline: Respected Bishop takes cash payment to produce votes

Nah, who a I kidding, such a headline would not only help elect a tea party candidate in Mississippi but might draw scrutiny on just how the Black vote is obtained in elections nationwide.

And what member of the MSM wants to talk about that?

Update: I should point out that I called the MS GOP to get contact info for Pete Perry & e-mailed him asking if this story was accurate, I also called the Bishop’s church with my inquiry but was told he would not be available till monday so I sent a request by e-mail asked it be forwarded as I was going to post within 18 hours & mention this on my radio show.

I further e-mailed both times reporters asking if they had Mr. Perry’s statement on tape & the context that it was given in. All of these requests were made by 2 PM EST on Friday, 14 hours before this post went up, as of this writing 6:58 AM EST Saturday, I’ve not heard back from any of them.

Update 2: I heard back from Bishop Curdup this weekend he was able to say the Times quoted him accurately. As to Mr. Perry’s statement while he could not speak for others he would not confirm the statement of Mr. Perry concerning monies paid, but has said he (Bishop Curdup) is raising money for a pac. He referred to it as “our” PAC to fund their efforts. Post on the subject to come.

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One of the things that really has been a sore spot for Tea Party supporters like me has been the record of the Establishment GOP trying to sabotage any tea party candidate who manages to win a primary.

It is a tempting thing, the willingness to attack Tea Party GOP nominees guarantees you a positive stories in the MSM and a spot as the “goto republican” on CNN & MSNBC.

And if it isn’t the party dissing the Tea Party after primaries it’s ignoring the base before them:

Speaker John Boehner and other senior House Republicans are telling donors and industry groups that they aim to pass immigration legislation this year, despite the reluctance of many Republicans to tackle the divisive issue before the November elections.Many lawmakers and activists have assumed the issue was off the table in an election year. But Mr. Boehner said at a Las Vegas fundraiser last month he was “hellbent on getting this done this year,” according to two people in the room.

It’s one of the few things that threaten a 2nd Big Red Wave in 2014 and I’ve been sounding the warning about this for a long time.

The Tea Party hasn’t trusted you from day one. Tea party members volunteered for you, donated to you and worked to put the house in your hands because you were the best possible alternative but the deal from the start always was, if you mess with them, they will not stand with you.

If you wish tea party to support you in general elections when your candidates win primaries, you have to return the favor.

Almost all of the Tea Party people were not involved in politics prior to their involvement. If the GOP establishment chooses to push tea party members hard they will happily leave the political field for real life and allow you sit in the minority.

I’ve been wondering for a long time if there is anyone, ANYONE in the party willing to take the first step to take down this sign?

I’m glad to see that somebody has, and I’m pleasantly surprised to see it’s Eric Cantor.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Sunday he will vote for Dave Brat, the man who ended his career in Congress, but stopped short of congratulating him or mentioning his name.

Cantor, who lost to Brat despite outspending by a margin of 26 to 1, stressed the importance of keeping the Republican Party unified, a message he stressed to Tea Party conservatives in the House after the 2013 government shutdown.

Via Glenn, that story is good but what was better was Eric Cantor’s interview on ABS’s This Week.

I watched that interview and was simply delighted. Jonathan Karl spent 10 minutes plus interviewing Eric Cantor. He baited him on the Tea Party, he baited him on his opponent, and through it call he simply refused to bite. He didn’t attack the Tea Party, the Didn’t attack the conservative base, the only thing he could manage is a single line critiquing a joke by Laura Ingraham. That was it.

It had to be one of the biggest surprises and disappointments for the MSM. After the track record of incumbent establishment GOP figures the MSM must have been dying to get Cantor on to let him vent. After all he didn’t just lose his congressional seat, he was likely to be the next speaker of the House of Representatives. They must have been positive that Cantor would jump at the chance to get back at the tea party votes that caused his defeat.

He did not.

I won’t pretend I was not pleased at his defeat, I think it will be the death to amnesty this session, but I’ve got to tip my Fedora to Eric Cantor who in the midst of defeat demonstrated the class that so many in the party simply have not and has taken the first step to taking down that sign at the top of the post. Even if he doesn’t believe it, even if he’s absolutely outraged and furious, that he took this public step and did it quickly is a watershed moment.

I think his reaction to his defeat is one of the most newsworthy stories of the year and if his example that if followed will guarantee a GOP victory that will set the left on it’s heels.

That’s likely why nobody in the MSM is talking about it.

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The table understands that “immigration reform” is the key to democrat dominance for decades to come and they spent every moment possible downplaying it as an issue in this election while their allies online did the same.

@dmataconis The only reason he didn’t vote for it was b/c there was no vote. You know he supported it.

But the bottom line, spin not withstanding is Republicans in the house have been served notice that they support Amnesty at their own risk.

“But DaTechGuy”, you ask, “The primary season is almost over, Aren’t House Republicans are now safe?”

I think not, what is to stop angry tea party people for crossing over in the general particularly in strong GOP districts since the loss of say Boehner’s seat will not give Democrats the house?

Think about it.

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In other words it was roundly rejected by Catholics who don’t follow the church’s teachings and the paper Father Z calls the “National Schismatic Reporter”

The Washington Post being the Washington Post ran with the story of a conference that our Time Magazine opinion writer is going with

In Washington this week, the cardinal some consider the pontiff’s “vice-pope’’ mocked them outright at a conference called “Erroneous Autonomy: The Catholic Case against Libertarianism.” The Religion News Service story on the smackdown of trickle-down ran under the headline, “Catholic and libertarian? Pope’s top adviser says they’re incompatible.”

The Rev. Robert A. Sirico, of the Michigan-based libertarian Acton Institute, said the conference seemed designed to “create a straw man, shoot it down, and make political hay,” but did not accurately define or reflect views held by any but the most “extreme Randians or anarchists.” Not only is the market far from unfettered, he said, but there’s evidence that its expansion lifts people up rather than leaving them behind.He was invited to come and sit in the audience and be instructed, he said, but no libertarian Catholic was asked to speak or sit on a panel at the day-long event.

but that wasn’t the purpose of these people:

One of the conference organizers, Michael Sean Winters, whose anti-libertarian work the cardinal quoted extensively at the top of his remarks, said the event was very consciously not a debate, in the same way that during the Cold War, “the objective wasn’t to dialogue with communism; it was to defeat it.”

It’s a cute attempt to spin a false moral equivalence between fiscal libertarianism & the mass murder of millions and persecution of the church under communism almost as bad as the attempt to equate Libertarians argument about taxes with NARAL’s defence of killing children in the same piece.

(There is a reason why both the Post & the Time piece are classified as “Opinion”.

What kind of person makes such a ridiculous argument? Well in Time magazine it’s this guy…

Christopher Hale is a senior fellow at Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. He helped lead national Catholic outreach for President Obama’s re-election campaign.

Surprise surprise, a man who spent the last 6 years selling the most pro-abortion and anti-Catholic president of my lifetime to the clueless & uninformed strikes again.

Well given that the Democrats supports objective evil (abortion), considers marriage as defined by the church as bigotry and is specifically attacking the church through Obamacare they certainly can’t make the case for believing Catholics voting Democrat, therefore the plan is to make the case AGAINST the tea party.

There’s two problems with this plan, the first is reality. The left’s economic policies don’t lift people out of poverty, it keeps them in it:

“The income gap between rich and poor tends to be wider in blue states than in red states. Our state-by-state analysis finds that the more liberal states whose policies are supposed to promote fairness have a bigger gap between higher and lower incomes than do states that have more conservative, pro-growth policies. . . . According to 2012 Census Bureau data (the latest available figures), the District of Columbia, New York, Connecticut, Mississippi and Louisiana have the highest measure of income inequality of all the states; Wyoming, Alaska, Utah, Hawaii and New Hampshire have the lowest Gini coefficients. The three places that are most unequal—Washington, D.C., New York and Connecticut—are dominated by liberal policies and politicians. Four of the five states with the lowest Gini coefficients—Wyoming, Alaska, Utah and New Hampshire—are generally red states.”

via Glenn, but their second problem is something a lot of secular and low information voters have missed. While the left has done well in the culture wars in general there is a 2nd culture war that has taken place in the Catholic Church and while the secularists & liberals have been highly successful in the former, they have failed miserably in the latter as liberal orders are dying out while conservative ones are drawing vocations and conversions.

The irony of course is that fiscal libertarianism is not where the conflict with the church exists, it’s on social issues where strong libertarians most disagree with the church but since those positions tend to align with the left one can’t make that case to the faithful.

So if the left can’t win the faithful catholics to their cause the plan is to keep the nominal mass skipping Catholics as misinformed for as long as possible.

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While the NRSC ready to go all out to keep a Senator Cochran from being replaced by a tea party candidate at the top of the ticket, Mr. Cochran has an interesting use for all those dollars that GOP loyalists donated to the NRSC that the party plans on giving him.

Riskiest of all, it will involve reaching out to casual voters – including independents and Democrats – to swell the electorate with Mississippians who may not have participated in this week’s first round of voting. Mississippi allows crossover voting in primaries, though voters who already cast ballots in Democratic primaries this week are barred from participating in the runoff.

And what do Cochran supporters think of this?

Asked whether that meant recruiting non-Republicans, specifically, Chassaniol answered: “I think that 3 million Mississippians and everyone who cares about the state ought to take a real hard look at this.”

So in a year when the GOP needs six seat apparently the money the party is asking donors to give is going to go toward turning out Democrats in Mississippi rather than Republicans in swing states.

I’ve seen this play before, it doesn’t end well.

The party is really lucky the Democrats stink so much.

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Unfortunately for McDaniel while WAPT news reports might round up the state does not so that 50% is actually 49.6%.

Of course things are worse for Cochran as his number is 48.9%, but either way unless the remaining 9 counties vote overwhelmingly for McDaniel or there are a ton of absentee ballots we don’t know about we will have a runoff.

However Cochran has several distinct disadvantages in a run off.

1. Morale:

Cochran’s 2nd place finish suggests weakness & with the number of GOP wins necessary to flip the senate it might be a wiser choice to save said money to oppose democrats. Furthermore McDaniel’s first place finish will energize tea party bout inside the state and outside of it & Sarah Palin’s involvement guarantees McDaniel will have the money he needs.

2. Morals:

While McDaniel had to deal with the weird blogger video from the nursing home (which might have cost him that 50% with a run off this gives a chance for the other side of the coin to drop:

This hasn’t gotten much press as the left & their media allies were waiting to use it against Cochran but now that the Spectator

3. Mind:

Cochran managed to avoid a debate in round one, it’s going to be pretty hard to avoid such a debate this time around, that could be a problem as Dave Weigel reports:

On my way out of Mississippi, a few reporter friends e-mailed me with a problem. They were being assigned to cover an unexpectedly hot race—no polls had shown Chris McDaniel losing steam since a supporter illegally videotaped Sen. Thad Cochran’s bedridden wife in a nursing home. And yet they were struggling to get the McDaniel or Cochran campaigns to put them on an event schedule.

The explanation became clear at the end of the piece

Slate: Your TV ads right now describe what happened, describe the break-in at the nursing home. Why do you think it’s important for voters to see that and see Clayton Kelly with your opponent?

Cochran: I didn’t understand your question.

Slate: You’re running campaign ads that tell the story of the break-in at the home, of the blogger’s video break-in. Why do you think it’s important for voters to see that story?

A bit of a ramble, maybe, but not an indirect question. Like Bob Bennett, like Richard Lugar, one of the factors hurting Cochran is simply that he’s in his 70s. He hasn’t faced a challenge for decades. He’s, at best, out of practice — at worst, he’s missing a few steps.

The timing of the piece interesting it was the last day of the campaign so it was too late to change any result for McDaniel but if Cochran won it would be the opening salvo against the incumbent.

However with a run off in the works the fact that this point has been made in Slate and by Dave Weigel who is known to ask relevant questions on the ground, makes it an issue that could go beyond the blogs and into the heart of the race.

Cochran is not without advantages. It’s certainly possible that the establishment given a single race might be able to run in reinforcements, given Sarah Palin’s involvement they might think it’s worth the additional investment to stop McDaniel, Democrats crossing over might want to go after a tea party candidate with no democrat to run.

But either way it seems that reports of the demise of the Tea Party are greatly exaggerated.

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Sgt. Schultz:Oh I see nothing, I was not here, I didn’t even get up this morning!

Hogan’s Heroes Hold That Tiger 1965

Was it just a few months ago, after we found the investigator of the IRS scandal was an Obama donor & was rather tardy in interviewing victims that the press which have systematically ignored the IRS scandal reported charges in the IRS case were unlikely?

Judicial Watch today released a new batch of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) documents revealing that its handling of Tea Party applications was directed out of the agency’s headquarters in Washington, DC. The documents also show extensive pressure on the IRS by Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) to shut down conservative-leaning tax-exempt organizations. The IRS’ emails by Lois Lerner detail her misleading explanations to investigators about the targeting of Tea Party organizations.

That a sitting US senator was pushing on this is incredible that it’s taken a FOIA request for this data to come out is disgraceful and Glenn Reynolds notes a coincidence:

Interesting, isn’t it, that Levin decided not to run for re-election after the IRS scandal got out.

My answer: Can you count the number of grains of sand on at the seashore?

Remember, while the Benghazi hearings are a source of political fear due to the political danger involved, the decisions involved were judgement calls, bad judgement, disgraceful judgements, but legal ones. The only possible criminality there is the withholding of evidence that they can make an executive privilege claim on if they so choose.

The IRS scandal is different. It’s a source of not just political danger but actual danger. If the agency was used by the Democrats & the White House to target their enemies those who did it are subject to criminal penalties and perhaps even large civil judgement if the targets choose to sue over lost revenue (how many donors will happily testify that they withheld funds due to fears of the IRS?).

That is why no matter how many e-mails are released and revealed left will not acknowledge the IRS scandal, why they will deny it, lie about it and punish all those who do otherwise. And the US media (outside of Fox) will do the same.

The Internal Revenue Service managed a wide-ranging program that singled out tea party groups for special scrutiny from its headquarters in Washington, D.C., according to bombshell documents released Wednesday by a watchdog organization.

Judicial Watch, a center-right group that specializes in Freedom Of Information Act document requests and lawsuits, said it received a cache of papers from the IRS showing the depth of the Obama administration’s involvement in what officials have previously called the work of a few ‘rogue agents’ in Cincinnati, Ohio.
And letters from U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, show his involvement in pressing the IRS to target mostly conservative organizations with cumbersome questionnaires seemingly calculated to slow down their applications for tax-exempt status in the middle of an election year.

In one July 2010 email among IRS managers, a lawyer with the Exempt Organizations Technical unit in Washington wrote that his office was ‘working the Tea party applications in coordination with Cincy.’

Very few people will see that in print in the US and practically nobody will see it reported on the “mainstream” news sites. Even fewer will read the e-mails here.

If you want to know why blogs matter, this is it.

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It’s Wednesday we are $298 or twelve tip jar hits away from our first successful payweek since mid February. Today’s my 26th Anniversary so I won’t be around to send the e-mail thank-you for tipjar hits that I normally do but the best anniversary gift we could have is the knowledge that the mortgage will get paid this month.

One of the most interesting things about the rise of the tea party movement was just how much it took the left and the MSM by surprise.

When the movement exploded across the country they were dumbfounded. They tried to explain them away, laugh them off, pretend they were dangerous and finally promote alternate movements to try to drown them out.

Why didn’t they see the Tea Party for what it was?

It’s quite simple. The media, so confined to the Washington/NYC centers and so used to promoting the left’s paid astroturf movements couldn’t comprehend an actual grass-roots movement of regular Americans because they don’t know or understand average Americans.

Sarah Palin does. She knows the tea party members don’t have to be paid to show up.

Media Propaganda not withstanding when you go to the small tea parties events all over the country you won’t find a bunch of Koch money, in fact you will see very little money period. What you will find are a lot of regular people trying to make a difference.

And as Sarah Palin knows and reminds this audience, it is those small gatherings and the people who got involved on local and state campaigns which come from them, that are going to be critical in 2014 and will still be there long after the media continues to pronounce the tea party dead.

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It’s Monday and with 8 days left to the month I am over $800 short of the Mortgage that’s due in a week.

That’s why you don’t see the weekly goal this morning, because if I make that goal I’ll still be nearly $700 shy to pay the bills this month.

We had a good start yesterday but I still need a minimum of four $25 tip jar hitters every day for the next nine days simply to come up a mere $100 short.

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One of the things that our friends in the GOP have never seemed to figure out is what motivates the Tea Party / Conservative movement.

Lee Stranahan’s reportingnotwithstanding the vast majority of the people who got involved in the Tea Party movement did not have an interest in making a career out of politics nor were out to make their fortune and it certainly wasn’t a sign of love for the GOP…

“Who here trusts the GOP?” Not a single hand went up, but people over and over promised me that if the GOP spent like the democrats they would be back to throw them out too. No wonder the GOP is scared of the tea party.

…it was because of the problems that people saw and wanted to solve. Which is exactly the point that Sarah Palin is making

The key line

We’re not here to re-brand a party, we’re here to rebuild a country

The GOP perception of the Tea Party is like the CSA perception of England during the Trent Affair. It wasn’t until after Mason and Slidel’s release that the Confederates realized England only acted to protect their own interests.

At the NLRC both Mark Steyn & John Fund noted that thanks to the two-party system the GOP will likely win by default in 2014 as they did in 2010 but as Fund said, they will only keep power if they use that power to act according to the interests of the people who elect them.

Sarah Palin understands this, would that the GOP did.
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It’s Sunday and this is the worst position we’ve ever started a week in.

We could make our entire weekly goal today and still be over $600 shy of the mortgage payment.

There is no way to sugar coat it, after missing our weekly goal for the last 3 weeks and six out of the last seven we are a full $1015 shy of the mortgage payment with 9 days left to the month.

we need a minimum of four $25 tip jar hitters every day for the next nine days simply to come up a mere $100 short.

We can make our goal but only you help. If there was ever a time for you to kick in if you were thinking of it, it’s now.

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As I’ve already said there are signs of open war between Tea Party activist and the NH GOP that predated the Scott Brown business:

Grok’s absence symbolizes the split between the Tea Party wing of the NH GOP & the Establishment wing of the GOP. It’s reaching the point of open war. It is not beyond the realm of possibility that a conservative 3rd party will arise in the state after the November election unless this is taken care of.

Sure, I am an NH GOP Committee member, but I as I have said many times before, I’m a holder to the three TEA Party principles first, a Conservative second, and only then a Republican when it comes to political philosophy. Frankly, given our stances and the reception to our forcefully speaking out and advocating for them, especially lately, I felt that we would not be at all welcome. In fact, we believe that the TEA Party, the Conservative grassroots, are being told “We don’t need or want you” and this happens in a variety of ways small and large, visible and behind the scenes.

Bottom line a lot of the attendees leaned to the establishment side of the GOP and unlike CPAC the place wasn’t crawling with young Republicans (although the college Republicans were represented).

John Bolton, Rick Santorum & Bobby Jindel were all there so naturally their biggest fans would be there too. The Draft Ben Carson movement was there making their pitch and that also showed in the results. Chris Christie represents the Mitt Romney/Scott Brown wing of the party which was VERY well represented and Gov Christie appearances for GOP candidates in the state didn’t hurt either.

But there was only a single young woman at the YAF table, there was no large contingent of Paulites there and Rand himself was nowhere to be seen and many Tea Party types didn’t show.

Rand Paul won anyway.

Granted he won with only 15% but that result is more than Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio & Ted Cruz combined. He won without a strong surrogate and did so with an audience that strongly represented the establishment GOP.

I think people who remember the Ron Paul and the sort of cult of personality that was built around him and project this onto his son are making a huge mistake. Rand Paul is a serious contender for the GOP nomination, a smart and savvy pol who has positions that appeal beyond the old Ron Paul base and anyone who thinks otherwise either on the left or on the right is deluding themselves.

And any GOP candidate who thinks they can win without those Paul supporters showing up in November is not bright enough to be on the ticket.

It’s Monday and we’re $47 toward our goal of $365 to pay the mortgage and the writer.

After three straight weeks missing our goal we need your help

Without 13 $25 tip jar hits we will have no prospect of making mortgage this month.

We’ve done a lot in the last 10 days from CPAC to NLRC. but it can’t be done without you.

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As she was continuing her Green Eggs and Ham re-write I noted that there was a spot to my left that gave me an angle that would give me a clear shot of the Podium without the lights in the background messing me up.

Once there I settled in and alternatives between recording my clip and taking individual shots and got listening to the speech just as she was finishing her rhyme.

After long applause she noted the giants of the current conservative movement from Cruz to Paul & Lee in the Senate to Gowdy & Gohmert in the house noting it’s “time to send them reinforcements”. This drew more applause but it was after this that she got to the heart of the problem, the corporation between the crony capitalists & the income redistribution to the politically favored.

It is that intersection that is the source of the push back against the Tea Party. Palin talked about how Tea Party pols are offering solutions, acting on behalf of all those Americans without connections to counter both sides that are trying to feather their nest at the public expense.

That’s why She expresses optimism and she should. Historically the idea that a movement of ordinary people has achieved so much given the alliance of those on both sides of the aisle pushing against them is astounding and believe me Sarah Palin knows a bit about being pushed against

)

All of this is a testament to the greatness of both America & its people. For all of our faults as a nation how can we not be optimistic about something like that?

It’s Thursday and we remain at $93 dollars toward this week’s goal of $365 to keep the bills paid. That’s $272 short.

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El Cid: Sire, all those you see here, though none dare say so, harbor the suspicion that you may have counseled your own brother’s death. Unless you can prove your innocence you will have no loyal subjects. Your kingdom will be torn by doubt. Thus I can not give you fidelity nor own you as my liege

King Alphonso: What will satisfy you of my innocence?

El Cid:Your oath upon the holy book.

King Alphonso:You would ask a me to swear?

El Cid:Sire I DO ask it!

El Cid 1961

On day one of CPAC I declared that the most important Day one speech of CPAC was going to be the speech by Mitch McConnell saying:

the divisions between the Tea Party and the Establishment GOP is the one thing that can turn what should be the 2nd Red wave into the biggest upset since the Yankees took the field in the bottom of the ninth in game 4 of the 2004 ACLS.

I don’t know if Mitch and company have figured out how critical this speech is, nobody is talking about it but watch that speech and reaction. It will be the most important clue concerning election 2014.

Mitch’s speech had been scheduled earlier than it took place which is how I ended up covering the George Will / Sen Tom Coburn event. So I was ready when Senator McConnell came on stage…holding a rifle.

It was almost a Dukakis moment but quickly presented it to Senator Coburn generating some applause. He instantly when to his speech spending first few minutes talking about Senator Coburn’s virtues.

)

Judged solely on content it was a pretty good. He pointed out the weaknesses of the administrations policies, their attacks on the Constitution, what the GOP senate would do as opposed to Harry Reid and had an excellent line to answer the administration’s “income inequality” attacks

Never before has it been so hard, so hard for the rich to become poorer or the poor to become rich that’s what is un-american

In any other year that would have generated huge applause and been the headline. It perfectly summarizes both the lie of the administration and the reality that their policies have created, but it like most of the applause lines from this speech was greeted with at best polite applause and at worst silence and indifference from the crowd

If Mike Lee gave that speech the crowd would have been on its feet but because Senator McConnell no longer has the trust of the crowd it didn’t matter. They liked the words but didn’t trust the messenger. This shook and depressed me as I recorded my commentary on the subject shortly afterwards

)

McConnell needed to address the elephant/Rino in the room, he did not.

Looking it a week later it hit me what he really needed was his version of the big scene from El Cid where Charlton Heston extracts the public promise of the king.

What he should have done and still needs to do is, in front of that Tea Party Conservative vow that he would fight for conservative principles. Ann Coulter not withstanding he needs to answer these points by Erick Erickson:

I’m talking about the candidates McConnell has supported instead of the conservatives.

Would Ann have preferred Trey Grayson over Rand Paul? Grayson is now working with an anti-gun Democratic super PAC to elect Democrats. Mitch McConnell supported Trey Grayson.

Would Ann have preferred Charlie Crist over Rubio? She and I certainly did not like Rubio’s immigration plan — the one McConnell voted to get out of committee to the floor of the Senate. But would she have preferred Charlie Crist, who was and remains to the left of Rubio on the issue? Mitch McConnell supported Charlie Crist.

Would Ann have preferred Arlen Specter to Pat Toomey like Mitch McConnell did?

What about David Dewhurst over Ted Cruz?

What about Bob Bennett? Does Ann think conservatives, led by the Senate Conservatives Fund, should have left in the Senate the Republican who helped author the federal individual mandate that went into Obamacare? His replacement was Mike Lee. Would Ann really join Mitch McConnell wanting to keep Bob Bennett in the Senate over Mike Lee.

If I was Mitch McConnell I’d arrange a meeting the Erickson, or Matt Kibbe or even myself and on video make a public promise that he will support strong conservatives and if returned to the Senate as Majority Leader fight for conservative values and principles. It’s not a question of pride, it needs to be done for the sake of the party.

Until he does he what should be the 2nd coming of the big red wave will be an election will remain in doubt.

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It’s Thursday and we remain at $93 dollars toward this week’s goal of $365 to keep the bills paid. That’s $299 short.

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Ted Crus starts things off and the room will be mobbed with peopl4 dying to see him. Paul Ryan follows him. Later in the Day Chris Christie and Bobby Jindel and Marco Rubio will be on stage and at the end of the Day Donald Trump and his impressive hair will finish off the day.

The electricity to power the pixels these speeches will generate would be enough to power a small village for a month but for my money the speech that is not to be missed today is Senator Mitch McConnell.

By every normal measurement this should be a watershed year for conservatives. Obamacare is crashing and burning requiring delay after delay to prevent mass defections, Assad has won in Syria, the economy is still in a rut, even with the fillibuster removed the president can’t advance radical nominees, and this Administration’s diplomacy is making Vladimir Putin look like Peter the Great.

However the divisions between the Tea Party and the Establishment GOP is the one thing that can turn what should be the 2nd Red wave into the biggest upset since the Yankees took the field in the bottom of the ninth in game 4 of the 2004 ACLS.

I don’t know if Mitch and company have figured out how critical this speech is, nobody is talking about it but watch that speech and reaction. It will be the most important clue concerning election 2014.

For the sake of the country I hope he nails it.

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An influential group of tea partiers said in an open letter Thursday they’re no longer backing Rep. Steve Stockman, R-Texas, in his primary challenge against Republican Sen. John Cornyn. That, however, doesn’t mean they’re getting behind Cornyn — instead, they’re backing businessman Dwayne Stovall in next week’s primary.

That’s part of a big story talks about the GOP in the lead to retake the senate and it’s great news to see a guy like Dwayne Stovall mentioned in the MSM rather than only finding stuff like this only in places like Breitbart who covers the story as CBS difference with one difference:

If Grassroots America WE THE PEOPLE PAC’s hand-washing of Rep. Stockman was not clear enough, they added, “we disavow your lack of accessibility to the people of Texas during this campaign and these unethical activities.”

Hmmm Breitbart Texas had plenty of room for the Stockman critique and quoted parts of the letter hitting him but it seems something is missing from the story. Maybe there’s a clue in the actual letter:

We stood with Ted Cruz in the face of nrelenting attacks from every direction, and proudly we stand with Dwayne Stovall. Dwayne persistently and eloquently speaks out for our state’s rights against Washington’s encroachment. Mr. Stovall has traveled the state while still performing his regular work (no small feat), and he still managed to attend events that you seemingly never considered attending.

Dwayne Stovall isn’t afraid of a fair fight to become Senator, but you, sir, hide behind the email and mailing lists of organizations not native to Texas. Dwayne Stovall won our respect and our approval. As far as we are concerned, Dwayne Stovall is the only Tea Party candidate in

Texas for US Senate. We applaud his effort to meet the people of Texas in communities across the state. We note that Dwayne Stovall has a firm and clear understanding of the Founding Principles that give our nation a foundation of liberty. Because he represents these principles and will stand firm to defend our Constitution, Dwayne Stovall has earned our endorsement and support.

The Breitbart story didn’t mention the Stovall endorsement in their piece.

Maybe it’s just me but I’d the Tea Groups endorsing Dwayne Stovall right before early voting might just be newsworthy enough to mention in the Breitbart piece.

I’m sure it’s just an oversight, but to be sure I checked Breitbart sites for other mentions of Dwayne.

On Jan 25th Brandon Darby mentioned Stovall in connection to NDAA at Big Government

Dwayne Stovall, a Tea Party candidate challenging Senator John Cornyn for his seat in the United States Senate, has brought the controversial aspects of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) into the primary race.

The Dallas Morning News ran a headline titled: “ Despite Tea Party Grumbling, John Cornyn in Good Shape In GOP Primary.” The headline was accurate, as Senator John Cornyn is indeed doing well in the primary and will likely do well against his two Republican challengers, Rep. Steve Stockman and Tea Party favorite Dwayne Stovall. However, the Dallas Morning News article never mentioned the existence of Dwayne Stovall in their analysis.

That post seems rather ironic because during the month of February a time when Breitbart Texas was launched and Dwayne Stovall got national attention over his turtle soup ad. (including a spat with Gretta Van Susteren) the only place where you will find the name “Dwayne Stovall” on the site is in comments from readers.

To Dave Weigel’s credit he is heading to Texas and will be doing some ground level reporting, but my advice to Greta & the rest of the media making fun of the ad or hitting Stovall is this:

If you’re going to play gatekeeper on what news is noticed and what isn’t don’t critique a person for using your own biases against you to crash that gate…

…just like Andrew Breitbart did.

Who would think that a Tea Party Candidate would have more trouble crashing the gate on sites named Breitbart (Including Breitbart Texas) a month before early voting than he would CBS, Slate or the Washington post.

It’s a Topsy turvy world.

*****************************************************

Speaking of Topsy Turvy it’s the last day of February, the mortgage is due and we are as of this writing $501.89 cents short and logically the odds of getting half a grand of tip jar hits in a day are fairly slim.

Then again I found out a nice young lady I know won millions on a scratch ticket today (she’s been working hard for years. I’m rather delighted for her and if she can manage to buck much longer odds to win millions $500 in tip jar hits in a day is definitely doable.

If the needle doesn’t move significantly today this will be, thirteen months the largest shortfall we have ever had.

I am inclined is to hope that sufficient traffic bringing enough tip jar hitters to get the job will come, and if it doesn’t I’ll dip into what’s left of savings wear the belt a tad tighter and hope to do better next month and keep on fighting.

On the one hand I’m constantly hitting the establishment GOP in general and members of the establishment such as Sen Cornyn & Brown and regularly supporting and encouraging Tea Party candidates in primaries who oppose them.

On the other hand when such candidates run in general elections such as Gabe Gomez & Mitt Romney I support them and urge others to do so.

I’ve tried to explain this many times but I’d have a tough time making my case better than Jay Nordlinger did:

Obama has nominated Debo Adegbile to be the assistant attorney general for civil rights. Mona Charen devoted a column to the nominee, here. Adegbile appears to be a leftist out of Central Casting: a champion of racial quotas, a believer in “customary international law,” when American law proves inconvenient, etc.

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